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itsnotmymindI stumbled on this conversation on Tumblr, and it made me think of my own stories about Y2K.
My dad works in computers, and he was able to reassure my sister and me that the world was not really ending. Unlink the parents of some of the people in the linked discussion, he didn't work to prevent the Y2K catastrophy: he avoided that kind of work because he was worried he would be laid off once the crisis was passed.
The funniest Y2K story I know is about my grandfather. Convinced the apocalypse was coming, dismissing his son's reassurances, he hoarded bottled water. In 1999, a hurricane passed through my grandparents' area. My grandparents had to boil all their water.
"It's a good thing you have all that bottled water stored in the basement," my father said.
"That's for Y2K!" my grandfather retorted, and refused to use it.
A little over a decade later, my aunt was visiting my grandparents. She and my father spoke on the phone, and he told her the Y2K water story.
"Oh, that's what all that water in the basement is for!" my aunt said.
My dad works in computers, and he was able to reassure my sister and me that the world was not really ending. Unlink the parents of some of the people in the linked discussion, he didn't work to prevent the Y2K catastrophy: he avoided that kind of work because he was worried he would be laid off once the crisis was passed.
The funniest Y2K story I know is about my grandfather. Convinced the apocalypse was coming, dismissing his son's reassurances, he hoarded bottled water. In 1999, a hurricane passed through my grandparents' area. My grandparents had to boil all their water.
"It's a good thing you have all that bottled water stored in the basement," my father said.
"That's for Y2K!" my grandfather retorted, and refused to use it.
A little over a decade later, my aunt was visiting my grandparents. She and my father spoke on the phone, and he told her the Y2K water story.
"Oh, that's what all that water in the basement is for!" my aunt said.
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Date: 2018-11-12 07:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-11-12 06:40 pm (UTC)Basically a lot of computer systems only used two digits for the year: the 19 was implied. So 80 would be 1980, 90 would be 1990, 00 would be 1900 - oops. They had to change the system so that there was room for the 2000s.